BALDWINSVILLE — This week’s mailbag features opposition to the United Auto Supply warehouse proposal and a thank-you to the organizers of the Jordan Memorial Day Parade.
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A great parade in Jordan
To the editor:
To Onondaga County Legislator Ken Bush Jr. and town officials, I was so excited and emotional to be at the parade on Memorial Day. I believe it was one of the best ever and your longest. You are to be commended for pulling it all together. Everyone loves a parade and there certainly was a large crowd attending. I believe we are all so relieved and happy to be able to join together since COVID.
Diane Bowes
Baldwinsville
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Enough is enough
To the editor:
To the Lysander Planning Board Members in regard to construction of a United Auto Supply facility:
It is with great respect for your public service that I appeal to you today, hoping my words will help Lysander steer clear of an industrial complex of a size and scope that will change the face of our town forever.
Before it’s too late, someone in authority needs to say enough is enough.
Lysander continues to be one of the fastest growing residential areas in all of Central New York. One needs only take a short drive in any direction from the village of Baldwinsville to see hundreds of cookie-cutter houses in various stages of construction.
Driving east on Route 31, from the village line to beyond the skeletal remains of Great Northern Mall, there are hundreds of apartments, the Anheuser-Busch brewery, the massive community of Radisson, grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants, department stores, car and truck dealerships, hardware stores and banks. On what was once all green space, barely an inch of open land remains in that 6- to 7-mile stretch of road.
The irony is that for every new home and every new business that’s allowed in Lysander, a little more of the very reason people want to live here is gone forever. Our #1 selling point has always been our magnificent open spaces, the “green” that was once so prevalent. Add to that what was once manageable traffic, and the town’s easy access to routes 690 and 481, and Lysander was a great place to be. But every square foot of construction, be it commercial, industrial or residential, has drained a little more of the beauty from this town.
Before it’s too late, someone in authority needs to say enough is enough.
And then, of course, there’s the current traffic congestion that this warehouse/distribution center would only exacerbate. Because of the unchecked development allowed in Lysander, it has become nearly impossible to get through the village’s main intersection — the only way to cross the river in the village — in a reasonable amount of time. For that reason I, like many others, take Interstate 690 from my home off Route 48/Oswego Road to get to River Mall or other locations on the south side of the village. I can’t imagine the snarl of traffic at Route 48/690/Hencle Boulevard with this distribution center either under construction or up and running at full speed.
Some of you may have lived here long enough to remember WHY that intersection exists as it does today. Because of numerous accidents, including fatalities, it was changed from a simple, 4-way configuration to a place where 16 lanes come together from all directions. Getting from Route 48/Oswego Road to 690 or to 48 North, or from Church Road to anywhere, gets more frustrating with each passing day. And that’s without the existence of a massive warehouse and distribution center.
Before it’s too late, someone in authority needs to say enough is enough.
Some of you may remember the lines from “Big Yellow Taxi,” the famous Joni Mitchell song: “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot … You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.”
I fear that Lysander is fast becoming a prime example of that long-ago foreboding.
On behalf of those who love what’s left of our once beautiful town, we beg you to please say no before it’s too late. Enough is enough.
Suzanne Ellis
Baldwinsville
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Lysander lacks transparency
To the editor:
I am writing this letter in opposition to the proposed 1 million square foot United Auto Supply warehouse to be built near Baldwinsville. I don’t believe the community is against economic growth and development. However, we’re taking a circle peg and putting it in a square hole. It just isn’t the right place for a 1 million square foot, 40-foot high warehouse larger than the Great Northern Mall and lit 24/7 for 363 days a year. The proposed site is surrounded by the Three Rivers Wildlife Management Area and within a two-mile radius of several hundred residential homes.
It is interesting to compare the proposed United Auto Supply warehouse with the nearly completed Amazon facility in Clay. The footprint of the Amazon facility is 820,000 SF. The United Auto Supply warehouse will actually be larger with a 1,000,750 SF footprint. The Amazon facility will have 90 truck bays. The United Auto Supply warehouse will have 141 bays. The Amazon facility is located on Morgan Road, surrounded by many large industrial complexes. The United Auto Supply warehouse will be surrounded by the Three Rivers Wildlife Management Area. The Amazon facility will add 1,000 new jobs. The United Auto Supply warehouse will consolidate employment from their current 567,800 SF facility (formerly P&C) on rte. 690 which will minimize incremental job growth. The town of Clay was fully transparent to the community throughout the entire Amazon warehouse process.
The town of Lysander was not transparent at all. In fact, on Feb. 4, 2021, after a very brief public hearing, the Lysander Town Board voted to change a decades old “green space law” that would then allow for the development of the massive United Auto Supply warehouse. At the Feb. 4, 2021, public hearing, Supervisor Bob Wicks was asked by a citizen if they have a timeline. His response was, “Well, we don’t have anybody that has given a proposal for that property yet.” Coincidently, United Auto Supply’s application to the Lysander Town Planning Board, which takes weeks to prepare, is dated Feb. 4, 2021.
I suggest the Town of Lysander Board rescind their amendment to the “green space law,” Lysander Code 320-32A (3). If the town still wishes to change the “green space law,” then put it to a public referendum which will allow the citizens of Lysander to vote on it. That way, the town of Lysander will truly represent the interests of the community versus the interests of Jim Ranalli and his 1-million SF warehouse.
